


Rise of Skywalker - Final Fight REWRITE

by swsithlords



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-22
Updated: 2021-02-22
Packaged: 2021-03-12 17:14:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,833
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29637936
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/swsithlords/pseuds/swsithlords
Summary: A short and sweet rewrite of the battle between Rey, Ben and Palpatine (with a little help from Anakin).It begins immediately after Palpatine drains the life Force of their bond and they collapse on the ground.
Relationships: Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Comments: 1
Kudos: 16





	Rise of Skywalker - Final Fight REWRITE

Ben rolled over, pain slicing through his back and his legs as he tried to face Rey, her name falling off his lips in the quietest whisper. Palpatine's attention was aimed at his Followers chanting the Sith Code in their own language and to the war still in full force overhead. 

Ben struggled to crawl over to Rey unnoticed and gently turned her face towards him once he was close enough to do so. Tears were pouring from the tired eyes that soon met his. 

"We lost, Ben." Rey's voice was broken, "I wish... I wish that I had more time with you."

Ben looked over her face as his hand still rest against her cheek. He looked up at Palpatine, seeing the old Sith smiling pleasantly at all the darkness around them. 

He shook his head, bringing his eyes back to Rey, "We haven't lost yet, Rey. We'll have time. Get up."

She gasped, leaning into his hand, "I can't do this. I'm not strong enough."

"Rey," he was able to give her the slightest grin, "you are stronger than you know."

Suddenly, Ben was pulled away from Rey. She turned her head and saw him being held up in the air; his body was stiff and unmoving. 

Rey squirmed, trying to stand up, but she had no energy left. It felt like there was nothing left inside of her. Seeing Ben restricted by Palpatine's power made her feel all the more weak - she could do nothing, she is nothing. She can't save him. Even as she tried to lift her hand up to him, her body betrayed her.

Palpatine grimaced, looking from the dying girl to the Chosen One's descendant. He could feel the energy of their affection connecting them to one another and realized there wasn't just a bond created by the Force between them. Palpatine knew the light that existed between them formed from their love for one another. If ridding Anakin of his precious Padme was the key to rising Darth Vader, there was still a chance that his granddaughter would not fail him.

He focused on Ben as his hatred towards the Skywalker's grew, "As once I fell, so falls the last Skywalker."

It took minimal effort to throw Ben through the air and into one of the gaping pits scattered throughout the throne room. Palpatine couldn't help but to be slightly impressed that the boy made no sound, not even the smallest cry or scream.

Rey had closed her eyes, wishing she hadn't heard any of Palpatine's final words to Ben or the sound of Ben hitting the stone floor. Though she couldn't sense Ben had passed on, she knew it would soon come. She was alone. She was dying. It was too late.

During what felt like her final moments, she drifted away into her mind. The last thing she heard was the sound of lightning strikes rising above her, then everything seemed to fade away. 

"Rey, these are your final steps." A gentle voice said to her, "Rise and take them."

Her eyes opened slowly and instantly she noticed the shift in scenery. Still unable to move, she shifted her eyes to look around. It seemed she was surrounded by stars, floating in the middle of space. 

After taking a deep breath, she blinked away another tear, "Be with him."

"Rise, Rey." A different voice said to her as she began to feel like she was falling.

Rey barely shook her head, "Be with him."

The stars seemed to fall and vanish around her, leaving her back in the throne room. Lightning was still striking the sky and she was uncertain if any time had truly passed.

"Rise." 

Rey gritted her teeth, forcing her voice to come out louder, "Be with Ben." 

The ground which Rey's hand was pressed against began to crack. The ground split quickly, a narrow slit in the surface that was connected to Rey and the pit Ben was cast inside of. The same blue light that illuminated the pit began to fill the cracks in the ground, giving an image nearly identical to lightning.

Palpatine noticed the surface of his throne room illuminating and withdrew his own lightning, watching with curiosity. 

"Be with him." She said again, louder this time than all the other times before. More cracks began to form, around her, all leading to the pit. 

Palpatine took a step forward, peering off in the distance. His Followers fell silent, leaving only the sound of echoes from explosions outside in the room. The slivers of blue light across ground were pulsing. Rey felt something growing inside of her and it gave her strength. It wasn't the Jedi, it wasn't her anger or her pain, and it wasn't her fear - her strength came from nothing and no one but herself. As she rolled over onto her side, groaning and fighting against her weakness, she focused on the silence around her. 

"The Force is with you, Rey." It was Luke. His words punctured through the silence and Rey felt energy rising inside of her.

Palpatine heard her panting for air and felt her spirit sparking a new sense of purpose inside of her. He watched as she pushed herself up on her hands, then her knees, and then he heard a voice in her head that drew out all of his darkness.

"You're not alone." The voice of Ben Solo playing in her mind created a fire within her soul. She pushed herself up onto her feet, reaching her hand out and ignited Leia's saber after it slammed into her palm. 

Palpatine looked at her with disgust as she faced him. She seemed completely unafraid despite her apparent struggle to stay on her feet.

"May your death be the final word in the story of the Jedi." Palpatine spoke the words in a low growl before shooting lightning at Rey. The lightsaber caught the lightning as Rey held it up in front of her, defending herself from his attack. With heavy steps, Palpatine moved towards her, the force of his attack causing her feet to slide against the ground. She tried to take her own steps towards him but his anger was feeding off the darkside of the Force like a leech.

Rey gripped as tightly as she could to the saber, digging her heels into one of the cracks in the ground to prevent her body from moving any further. 

"You are nothing!" Palpatine yelled at her, sending another wave of energy to towards her. She winced when it pushed against the weapon and Palpatine snarled, "A scavenger girl is no match for the power in me!"

Another wave crashed into Rey and the ground vibrated beneath her. She glanced at the cracks that once illuminated a blue light as they began to fade into a purple color. With her hand which she had behind her back, she called to Luke's saber. As she waited for it to come to her like it had a few times before, the purple light was turning red.

Palpatine was so consumed by his need to kill Rey, he didn't notice the gradual change of color. All he could sense was Rey's mind losing focus of him and he was certain that meant she was about to give up. Rey kept focusing on Luke's saber, hoping that the Force was really with her to guide it to her opened hand.

"You cannot end my reign of power!" Palpatine shouted, trying to pass her saber with even just one lightning strike, "I am all the Sith!"

Rey jumped with surprise as the other saber smacked into her hand. Relief met her soon after as she brought her eyes to Palpatine's, looking deeply into them as she spoke and successfully took one big step in his direction, "Not all of them."

She pulled the lightsaber from the grip of the lightning and dodged beneath it, jumping away as the bolts shot into the back of the Temple and crashed into a section of Palpatine's followers.

Rey smiled when Palpatine looked towards her. He shot another single streak of lightning at her, screaming with frustration as she simply jumped away to dodge it, keeping the sabers powered off, one in her hand and the other attached to her belt.

Another lightning bolt came whirling towards her and she reached her empty hand up, stopping it in midair before sending it off into another section of the stadium. 

"Your friends are dead! The Skywalker's are dead! The Jedi are dead! There is nothing left for you!" Palpatine used the Force to throw Rey across the room just as he had done Ben. She stopped short of falling into the pit and crawling back up onto her feet, holding on to her hope regardless of Palpatine's words.

He laughed at her, "Your faith... it will be the reason that you die."

All of the red light within the ground disappeared, leaving them in total darkness. She felt something - someone - take place beside her. Rey felt no fear, because even though she couldn't see him, she knew who he was.

Palpatine couldn't sense his new enemy anymore, but he could feel... another. 

"Vader?" He gasped as the presence of an old ally was felt, shaking his head in disbelief, "Skywalker?"

"No." A beam of blue light ignited across from Palpatine.

Another blue beam emerged. The two lightsaber beams were held close together and when Palpatine sent lightning towards them, the sabers crossed each other, both wielded by one person. 

The throne room lit up again, lightning shooting down from overhead as the walls and the ground were casting red and blue lights around them. Palpatine's fear of failure was betraying him, causing him to panic instead of focus. Before him was Ben Solo, though not as he appeared before his fall. Ben's face was cold and his eyes were golden; he looked like his grandfather... he looked like Anakin.

Palpatine used all of his energy to attack Ben, but his mind wondered. He had no idea where Rey had gone nor could he sense her anywhere around him. His inability to sense the girl hardly caused him any more worry - he couldn't sense Ben, either. It was as if somehow they managed to manipulate the energy they were releasing in order to disguise themselves. This idea stuck with Palpatine as he watched the darkness and light take turns covering Ben's face; for the briefest moment, he didn't simply look like Anakin... he was Anakin. Even if the face of Skywalker was visible for only a second, Palpatine knew that Skywalker had saved his grandson from dying and was aiding him to reach victory.

Then, from the corner of his eye, Palpatine saw a shadowy figure lurking in the distance beside him. Rey stepped onto the seat of the Sith throne, standing tall as she looked over the herd of Palpatine's followers. They were climbing down the stone walls, helping one another reach the surface. Few were pointing over at Ben while others were walking towards him. They looked like nothing but shadows creeping around the room. Palpatine felt a shock in his chest as Ben sent his lightning flying back into him. When Palpatine saw his followers moving forward to attack, he dropped his hands and fell to his knees, "My army will finish this fight."

Rey watched Ben turn around and face the herd, swinging the lightsabers around and preparing to fight them off. Rey would never doubt Ben's abilities in combat, but she knew there were too many of them - he wouldn't make it. She looked at the tall statues placed around the stadium and reached her hand up to one. A scream escaped her throat as lightning flew from her fingertips, flying right into the head of a statue. It exploded, the debris fell and crashed into the shadows. She shot another bolt at another statue, continuing to destroy the Temple and eliminate the followers. 

Ben watched Rey use this power and saw the glow in her eyes, but the darkness wasn't overpowering her light, it was aiding her as she protected Ben from the threat of an attack. 

As the Temple collapsed around him, Ben moved slowly to Palpatine, pointing Luke's lightsaber in his direction. Palpatine was losing his power, his skin was becoming pale and wrinkled as it was before he drained the Life Force from Ben and Rey. His body was failing him... the Force was abandoning him. 

"Kill me." Palpatine pleaded, looking at his hands as his skin began peeling apart, "Kill me just as your grandfather once did."

Rey knocked down the last statue and watched it crumble, ensuring the army was entirely eliminated. She jumped down from the throne and watched Ben as he circled Palpatine.

"I turned your family against you." Palpatine laughed hysterically, "I created you, I created Kylo Ren, just as I created Darth Vader. I aided in your grandmother's death, I am the reason your grandfather died. I convinced you to kill your father and break your mother's heart. I put those images in your head, the one's Luke saw the night he betrayed you. You know you want to kill me."

Ben took deep, even breaths, bringing the lightsaber closer to Palpatine as he kept up his taunts, "I created your opposite, formed your bond, made her hate you and bring you more pain. Her existence was meant to cause your demise. She will never truly want to be with you. She will always want you to change... you'll never be good enough for her and she's all you have left."

Rey was staring at Ben, her hands balled up in tight fists. He lowered the lightsaber before powering it down, keeping his eyes on Palpatine as the old man cackled and slumped over. 

Ben knelt down beside him, tilting his head to the side, "Strange how my whole life has been a lie leading up to this very moment... and I'm not at all mad at you." Palpatine looked at Ben with visible confusion in his dying eyes, "All I have for you is pity. You've spent your entire existence seeking revenge and control by starting a war you were destined to lose."

Ben looked at Rey as he stood back up; his eyes were fading back to their normal color and his face softened. He walked around Palpatine towards her, "What should we do with him?"

Rey was looking around the destroyed Temple. She knew they couldn't kill him - he had no weapon and posed no current threat. Even if she wanted to do it, she wouldn't. 

Palpatine heaved and coughed, feeling himself fading away. He knew his essence would drift off into oblivion as his soul traveled to the pits of Chaos, and as slow as it was taking him to die, the more outrage he felt knowing he'd soon meet his end. Expecting his death was such a horrible thing. He looked at Ben and Rey, hating the thought of them remaining in his absence, both proving worthless to his plan. 

"I... created... both of you." He moaned, slowly lifting his hands, "If I... must die... you will both... go with me."

A single strand of lightning rose towards the ceiling from each hand, hitting the stone overhead. Rey went wide eyed, watching a large crack run from the ceiling until it was sliding down the wall.

"We have to go." Rey was stern; the Temple was going to collapse. 

Ben's mind went straight to the pit as debris began to fall before them, "We won't make it out in time. You're gonna have to trust me on this one."

"What's the plan?" Rey leaned into him as the ground began to shake. Palpatine fell face first into the ground, dust filling the air around him. 

Ben clipped the sabers to his belt and held his hand out for Rey to take, "We're going to jump in the pit."

Rey looked at his hand and then into his eyes, "How come every time you offer me your hand, it's under less than ideal circumstances?"

A large rock fell behind Rey, causing her to jump forward. She quickly decided to trust him and took his hand, running to keep up with his pace.

"Figured I could get away with it this time, plus you did say you wanted to take my hand." He would have laughed if they weren't in such a high stakes situation. 

Rey saw the pit growing larger as they neared it, wishing she could close her eyes but had to remain focused and dodge the falling rocks, "I convinced myself Ben wouldn't be as insane as Kylo." 

Ben squeezed her hand. Even if he knew his plan was going to work, he felt Rey's worry and it had an impact on him. 

They reached the edge and with no hesitation, they jumped into the light below them.

**Author's Note:**

> I do have a scene in mind that comes after this one, I just haven't written it out yet. If/when I do write it, I'll update this!


End file.
